we begin with breaking news this morning. part of the tease area is under a tornado warning. the national weather service just issued that warning t covers parts of anne arundel county, calvert county and st. mary's county. we are also under a floodwatch this morning as this massive storm system soaks most of the east coast. it stretches from the southern tip of florida up to new york state. good morning. i'm gurvir dhindsa. let's get straight over to

tucker to find out about the weather situation. >> yes, very danny gonzalez russ conditions out there. we have this tornado warning. let's get right to it. hd radar will show you all the activity across the area. tornado warning for just a few more minutes here for south central anne arundel county, calvert county and eastern st. mary's county. that is east of the district. owings, dunkirk, long beach, calvert beach, st. leonard and tracy's landing all in the path of this line of thunderstorm activity. i will focus in and show new area. other than if you are not seeing tornadoes, along this line, we are seeing extremely intense thunderstorm activity, wind gusts over 40 miles per hour and heavy rain as well. the rain rates have been in excess of about two inches an hour so expect widespread flooding here. we are under a tornado warning east of the district into southern prince george's county for another few minutes.

the rest of the area experiencing extremely heavy rain. can you see the rain falling across the area. rain totals already very impressive. heavy rain will be with us throughout the morning hours and start to taper off. more details in just a couple of minutes. back to you. >> thank you. a deadly tour bus accident on i-270 in montgomery county is under investigation this morning. police say the bus veered off a sky ramp and plummeted 45 feet for the lanes below killing the driver and injuring many of the passengers. will thomas has more. >> reporter: some of the survivors were heard talking about the crash just before the crash. seeing the driver would has now been identified as 66-year-old joseph hanover, they talked about seeing him possibly pass out just before the bus went off the edge of this hov sky ram op i-270 northbound.

a total of 1 people have been taken to the hospital -- a total of 12 people have been taken to the hospital. some of the first footage shows children being comforted by passers-by. >> a number of children that were in the triage area were being evaluated for their injuries. >> reporter: the limousine- style mini tour bus picked i'm combination of students and adults from the carlyle, pennsylvania area. a total of 12 people on board including the driver. about 4:00 just before the start of the afternoon commute, the bus entered an elevated sky ramp along the northbound section of interstate 270 in bethesda, maryland t then went off the highest point, plunging 45 feet below. montgomery county fire and rescue conducted two physical searches around the area of the bus to make sure no additional passengers were ejected. police k-9s were used as well

in that effort. and just behind me, that bus is now coming right now. will be towed to a montgomery county police impound lot. this is the area where they will do a further inspection of the bus to make sure they have really gone over it with a fine tooth comb. ntsb investigators are also on scene scene. they will also do an inspection. the driver of the bus, 6 #-year- old joseph clabaugh killed in that crash. -- 66-year-old joseph clabaugh killed in that crash. another top story we are following, d.c. police are on the hunt for a couple of persons of interest in connection with that fire at a high-rise yesterday morning. several people had to be rescued. one man died when he jumped from a fifth floor window.

stay with us. we have much more straight ahead. we'll take a look at our big story, which is the weather today. also going to impact traffic and we'll take a look at your other top stories as well as fox 5 morning news at 4:30 begins now. good morning to you. it is a soggy start to this thursday morning, the last day of september. the weather our big story this morning. thank you for joining us. and without further ado, here is tucker barnes to tell us more about what we can expect today. >> good morning. a real mess out there. a lot of rain falling across the area. we have this tornado warning set to expire in just a couple of minutes. a real mess with embedded thunderstorms, rainfall rates approaching two inches an hour in some spots. we've had reports of lots of gusty winds. we have a tornado warning, a wind advisory along the bay and a flash flood watch. let's get to it. hd radar, did want to show you

the area we've been most currented with in the past half hour or so and that is east of the beltway, east of prince george's county along the bay there. see the intense yellows and reds. there is thunderstorm activity and doppler radar is indicating the possibility some of tornadoes. a tornado warning was issued about a half hour ago. it is in effect for a few more minutes. let's close in on that region. you can see the widespread rain across the region. this is pushing up towards mitchellville up across route 50 here in prince george's county. you can see the intense yellows and reds on your map. that is indicating some extremely heavy rain. chesapeake beach roughly stretching north up towards mitchellville and eventually annapolis, we have to be concerned about these thunderstorms and heavy rain. we are expecting wind gusts up to about 45 miles per hour. the rest of the area getting

heavy rain. we have several more showers where we and expect some extremely heavy rain as this system is slowly winding up and continues to push in from the south and from the south and east. let's push on to view. i want to show you the storm system in its entirety. you will be able to see that across the carolinas, right up into virginia -- can we take a look at view? is that possible? there we go. you can see the rain that has to get into the washington area. we're not done yet. i think it will be raining heavy at times. things will start it taper off a little butt at noon. temperatures, 68 at reagan national. 59 in hagerstown. the worst conditions will be between about right now and 11:00 this morning. then things will start it quiet down. windy at times. wind out of the northeast 10 to 15, gusting 30 to 40 miles per hour touring periods today,

particularly in thunderstorm activity. more on the weather in just a moment. we'll see if the tornado warning gets extended as well. >> i know it will be a busy morning for you all. the tropical storm marching up the cove is our big story. we'll talk more about that in just a second. we do want to talk to julie to see how roads are looking. i came through lots of water just pooling on the roads. >> absolutely. a good amount of rain in gaithersburg but once i hit the beltway at connecticut avenue, it was pounding across the highway. through the glare of the lights, you could just see is it treatmenting across the beltway. and people are driving way too fast at this hour of the morning in this rain. you are feeling with poor visibility, the slick roads and the ramps and the pounding of that water and the glare. it is hard to see it until you hit it and all that road spray kicks up in everybody else's face. you got to slow down.

we are dealing with accidents. lane are open at the inner and outer loop at the american legion bridge. the crash is near telegraph road tying up the right side of the highway. we have the crash northbound i- 95 before you reach the exit for dumfries. eastbound i-70 remains closed off. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. >> thank you so much. that huge tropical system which is making its way up the coast is sparking flooding fears that we've been talking about and that probably is going to mean a nasty start to your day. sarah simmons is live this morning in kensington, maryland with a look at how things are out there on the road. >> reporter: good morning t will -- it will be a nasty commute. they have shut down beach drive. you probably saw the park

police behind me. they have this cut off. they've had this area closed, beach drive from the d.c. line to franklin street for srs since 1:00 a.m. this morning because it has been raining pretty hard for several hours as many of you out there probably heard it for quite some time. it has been coming down. it hasn't quite gotten as high as we had seen it before. but we have seen it starting to build. they have been preparing for it all night long. as we know as well, the d.c. region has been preparing for it. the district has been handing out sandbags yesterday preparing for this, asking people to clean out their gutters, get the leaves out of as a lot of jurisdiction around the d.c. area have been doing. it will be a nasty commute this morning. the areas that you know of on your drive in where the water tends to build, it is probably going to be pretty high there, the standing water as well this

morning. keep that in mind. leave extra time for yourself as you head out. this rain is not going away any time soon. >> thank you. we want to see swat weather is like where you are. if you have flooding or trees down, can you upload pictures and video to myfoxdc.com. just check under the weather tab. our other big story, a bus driver is dead and several people recovering after that you are tour bus plunged off i- 270 in montgomery county. investigators want to know why this happened. stacy cohan joins us now in bethesda with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. we are along montrose road overlooking i-270 now. they cleared up all the last remnants of this accident about 1:00 a.m. so if you are driving through this area, you will not see what happened or be affected by road closures anymore but it will be a long time before people for get this terrible accident. let me show you what it looked

like last night. it was a limousine-style bus, a mini tour bus. there were 1 people, adults and children, on a tour of the city heading back home. the bus entered a elevated ramp that leads onto northbound 270. somehow, that bus ended up going off the ramp at its highest point and plummeting 40- plus feet to the highway below. there is one person killed. it was the driver of the bus, 66-year-old joseph clabaugh, jr. here is what one witness said as she described the scene. >> actually, the situation looked quite orderly. they had plenty of help. they were being consoled by adults. the firefighters were tending to them. i was surprised. i would expect the children to be much more upset than they were but they were being very well taken care of. >> reporter: obviously a

terrifying afternoon for the children and for everybody on 270 in that area. it became a traffic problem. the bus was towed away so that investigators could further pursue it to see if there was any equipment failure or driver error. the cause of this accident is still very much under investigation. two people recovering from life- threatening injuries in the hospital. a total of 12 hospitalized. a 13th refused treatment. but 207 is reopened now. the weather will be difficult so as you are going through this area, use caution for that reason. the accident scene has been cleared. back to you. >> thank you. a teacher's aide at a local day care is abehind bars accused of assaulting a little girl. police say they caught him just as he was trying to leave the country. we are checking more local headlines. in our health alert, ditching your workplace chair for an exercise ball. it is supposed to burn more calories but it is doing more

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making headlines. police in d.c. have arrested a suspect in the funeral shooting on u street within 4 hours after that shooting. they arrested 21-year-old brandon miller and charged him with first degree murder. another 21-year-old was found dead inside an overturned car an another person was injured. miller tells police he gave two people a ride to and from the scene. a fairfax county man accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl is now in a new york jail. authorities say they picked up a man. the suspect is expected to be extradited back to fairfax county sometime in the next couple of weeks. farmer president jimmy carter is waking up in the hospital again this morning. he was admitted tuesday after he complained of having stomach pains while he was on a flight to cleveland, ohio.

doctors say the pain was like hi caused by a viral infection. we have an update on the race for u.s. senate in delaware. long-time republican congressman mike castle who lost to a tea party favorite, christine o'donnell, will not mount a write-in campaign. the former two-term governor and longest serving congressman in delaware history lost the primary in a stunning upset to o'donnell earlier this month. first responders and new yorks who became ill from breathing toxic fumes following the attacks of september 11th are one step closer to receiving free health care and compensation. the house passed a $7.4 billion bill yesterday. it would help people who didn't discover their illnesses until at least a few years after the attacks. supports saw it is well deserved help for the 9-11 heroes. >> this is a day we repay our debt. you want to call it entitlement bill, okay. they are entitled. they are entitled to our care.

they are entitled to our respect. they are entitled to the health care that they need and they are entitled to a yes vote today. let's give it to them. >> critics of the bill say it is wrong for the program to accept medical claims until 2031. the senate still has to approve that bill. we have another commuter alert if you are using metro this weekend. this time, some good news. coming up next, we'll explain. sitting on an exercise ball is supposed to help you burn calories but could it be doing more harm than good? that is coming up in our health alert. extreme weather moving through our area. we have extremely heavy rain and thunderstorm activity pushing to the east of washington. i'll have the details on the forecast and julie wright will take a look at your wet roadways coming up in just a couple of minutes. yoee.

there is a live look outside. you might not be able to tell. that is the wilson bridge right there. it is 15 minutes in front of 5:00 on this thursday morning and that deluge that tuck are talked about yesterday, it is here. >> yeah, extremely heavy rain across the area. picked over a half inch at reagan national. to the east, we are picking up rainfall rates at an inch plus an hour. the tornado warning has been let to expire near washington. we'll have to watch. all this energy and all of this storminess pushing to the north, really racing to the

north. it will be with us through the morning commute, through the morning hours. i think by early afternoon, it will start to taper off. it will be touch and go here for the next several hours. we've got heavy rain gentleman i know. >> be forewarned. let's get to hd radar. we'll get start wade look at all the heavy rain across the area. there are pockets of extremely heavy rain. can you see the dark yellows and reds. the worst it was at this moment appears to be just to the south and east of the district. here in washington, we have seen some steady rain. can you seat worst it was down towards waldorf, la plata, some intense yellows and reds and this area to the east, i'll focus on that for just a minute. out towards annapolis, harwood, mitchellville, crofton, bowie. these are erstorms and they are addition to producing very heavy rain, wind gusts associated with the storms have been pushing 40 to 45 miles per hour. so extremely heavy rains just

to the east of the district as well. there is a lot of heavy rain to our south down towards fredericksburg as well. all of that this has to push through the area. we are not done with this yet. the heaviest rain will be with us through about 10:00 or 11:00 this morning. starting to pick up some thunderstorm activity as well. that will only enhance rain totals which are expected to be widespread across the area in excess of 2 inches. let's push on. this is the entire area through this evening and again, the concern is with the very heavy rain. we are not going to be able to hold it on the area roadways here. creek and rivers. we'll have some flooding. it is possible we'll see some flood warnings issued shortly as we start to see some extremely heavy rain. we have a coastal floodwatch and a wind advisory along the bay and for points to the east. wind are expected to gust along the bay up to about 45 miles per hour as this storminess continues to push off to the north and to the northeast

throughout the day. here is a look at our satellite- radar. can you see, look at how untents the rain is across the washington area, all riding up and over the frontal system. imagine in you are squeezing a sponge in your kitchen and all that water was getting wrung out, that is what is happening here. -- look at how intense the rain is across the washington area. we have several more hours here. i think the morning commute will be a mess as this rain will be slow to get out of here. here is your forecast. flash flood watch through the evening. windy at times. we'll see winds here in washington gusting up to about 0 miles per hour. temperatures in the mid-70s. things should start to taper off by early afternoon. if you want to hold off and get outdoors a little bit later today, my ad vase is wait a few hours here. 75 tomorrow and a much bright are but cool forecast for the weekend. lots of sunshine saturday an

sunday. highs only in the 60s. it will feel like october around here towards the end of the weekend. that is a very brief look at the forecast. i'll have more details. tony will be in in just a minute. she has the latest with your traffic. >> a lot going on with this rain and how it is impacting our drive. number one, visibility is ate minimum. in some places, it will be difficult to see a good car length ahead of you. a combination of the road spray, the rain itself and the poor visibility and you won't be able to see what is in front of you. we encourage to you slow down out there on the roads. if you are traveling the beltway here in montgomery county, here is a live shot of colesville road. you can see the ponding of water. lanes are open leaving 270 around towards college park and vice versa. beach drive, a portion of that shut down between the d.c. line and franklin. in virginia, northbound i-95 before you commit to 234 dumfries, accident activity

involving a tractor-trailer. only the left lane is able to get through. already causing headache for those traveling out of stafford early this morning. there is a crash eastbound i-70 after 29 up in howard county. accident activity involving a tractor-trailer. the roadway still closed. they hope to have it reopened by 5:30. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. >> thank you. we have a weekend traffic alert for you. metro is opening an hour early for an naacp rally on the maul this weekend. rail service will begin at 6:00 in the morning and operate extra blue line trains to accommodate the large crowds. john stewart and stephen colbert's rallies are getting a boost from a prominent political pundit. arianna huffington is offering free rides to anybody would wants to go. last night, huffington announced she is giving free butts buss seats to anybody who shows up at her web site's

office in new york city. rallies are scheduled for october 30th down on the mall. everybody who lives around here knows that we have the second worst traffic in the country and now new worries. the new defense building going up along i-395 in alexandria. john henrehan has the latest for the ropes for concern. >> reporter: if you ask a motorist to describe current rush hour traffic on 359 in virginia, here what you get. >> maybe 15, 20 miles per hour. ted situation if you don't have anything in the car to spend your time. how long you can listen to music or the radio. >> reporter: traffic on 395 is probably going to get appreciably worse onier from now when the defense department opens adjoining office towers along the highway in the west end of alexandria.

6400 dod workers will be shifted here primarily from the office buildings in crit kris essential city which in a post- eleven world are deeming insufficiently hardened. unlike chris kal -- crystal city, the mark center will rely on a large degree on shuttle buses. jim madalyn murray o'hair decided to zest shuttle bus service from the franconia springfield metro station. because there is no hov exit at seminary road, the test shuttle bus had to use the regular slow lanes of traffic on i-395, a trip of 7 one miles. >> this took 50 minutes. >> reporter: shuttle buses from the opposite direction would probably run more quickly like the cars on the left here because they are running counter to the rush hour flow. congressman moran wants an hov exit built at seminary road and he wants dod to pay for it.

currently, no such funding is in the pipeline and the new federal employment center is scheduled to open one year from now. john henrehan, fox 5 news. >> congressman moran is also trying to talk to his fellow legislators. he wants them to limit the parking at the new facility for defense works until traffic improvements are in place. checking your health alert, medical experts have pointed out some disadvantages to having a desk job. for example, you don't get as much exercise as you would if you had a job where you moved around quite a bit and slumming in the office chair could give you bad posture. some have traded their chair in for an exercise ball. do they really work? we have a report. >> reporter: if you work a desk job, you spend a lot of time sitting in your chair so i said noer more chair, instead i'm going to sit on an exercise ball. you want to build stronger core muscles an burn more calories.

now, i'm learning maybe i should go back to the chair. i'm in the the only one switching out my office chair for an exercise ball. as you struggle to balance, you are forced to use more muscles to improve your posture. let's roll out the truth. turns out sitting on the ball only burns about four more calories in an hour. as for improving posture, a study found that prolongs sitting on the ball led to just as much slumping as a deck chair. another dutch study found workers on exercise balls produced more activity but they had more spinal shrinkage. so in the end, the researchs are say the advantages do not outweigh the disadvantages but i say any time you can burn even a few more calories while you're at work sitting down, you are doing something right. still ahead on fox 5 morning news.

the race for governor in maryland. metro uno'malley as opened up a lead but challenger robert ehrlich is downplaying the numbers. we'll hear from both men coming up.  it's great. i eat anything that i want. key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake, raspberry cheesecake... ...yeah, every night its something different. oh yeah yeah...she always keeps them in the house. no no no, i've actually lost weight... i just have a high metabolism or something... ...lucky. [ wife ] babe... ♪ umm, i gotta go. [ female announcer ] over 30 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each.

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the weather continues to be the big story today. allison will be joining us in just a second. tony is already here. i know we came through in heavy rain coming in and now we have another tornado watch this morning. >> this one is a watch. it has been issued for much of the area t does include the district of columbia, prince george's county, anne arundel county, let's go to max 2 and we can show you the updated map now. this is in effect until 1:00 this afternoon. that is because of the severe weather, the heavy rain, the stormy conditions we are seeing pass through our area. as you know, those of you who have been up for a little while, we had a tornado warning in effect early early this morning for areas to the east

of the district including portions of anne arundel county. tucker, yes? all right. flash flood warning has been issued for washington, d.c. and the surrounding counties. this is all breaking moment by moment. in addition, we have just received word, let me pull this. we have a special marine warning for the chesapeake bay for most of the chesapeake bay. a possible waterspout near the patuxent naval air station. this is hd radar. you seat areas with yellow and orange. that is where we are seeing the heaviest rainfall amount. some windy conditions there too. right now, awe waterspout possibility near patuxent naval air station and the other new